title: Verbal autopsy: a tool for determining cause of death in a community.
abstract: Verbal autopsy was used to determine causes of death in 239 children under the age of 5 years. The diagnosis derived from verbal autopsy was corroborated with hospital diagnosis in 39 cases. There was concurrence of diagnosis in 72% of the cases. Using the diagnosis of bronchopneumonia to validate the method, verbal autopsy was found to have a sensitivity of 71%, specificity of 92%, a positive predictive value of 85%. Reliability index of agreement was 0.654. Recall period up to 29 months after death was found to be reliable.
authors.affiliation: Department of Paediatrics, College of Health Sciences, University of Nairobi, Kenya.
authors.forename: N M
authors.initials: NM
authors.lastname: Mirza
authors.forename: W M
authors.initials: WM
authors.lastname: Macharia
authors.forename: E M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Wafula
authors.forename: R O
authors.initials: RO
authors.lastname: Agwanda
authors.forename: F E
authors.initials: FE
authors.lastname: Onyango
mesh_terms: D015982:Bias; D001996:Bronchopneumonia / Q000401:mortality; D002423:Cause of Death; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003906:Developing Countries; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D007630:Kenya / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008499:Medical Records; D011939:Mental Recall; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000379:methods*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012141:Respiratory Tract Infections / Q000401:mortality; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires